Annual summer solstice tour of KU medicinal garden planned June 20

LAWRENCE — The public is invited to the summer semiannual tour of the University of Kansas Native Medicinal Plant Research Garden at 7 p.m. June 20, the summer solstice.

The garden is situated just east of the Lawrence Municipal Airport (directions and map), next to Prairie Moon Waldorf School (old Grant Township School) at 1865 East 1600 Road in Douglas County. It includes research plantings, a large native plant demonstration garden and the KU Community Garden. Garden pathways are ADA-compliant, and the site is open to the public dawn to dusk.

Kelly Kindscher, a senior scientist at the Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research and a professor in the KU Environmental Studies Program, will give an overview of the research plantings and highlight important species. The group will explore the garden and see the work of the Douglas County Extension Master Gardeners, who partner with the research center to manage the garden. 

The tour will end before dark, but visitors are welcome to stay to watch the sunset at about 8:40 p.m. See the KU Calendar event and the Facebook event page.

The garden site, established in 2010, serves as a gateway to the KU Field Station, as it is the first of several Field Station sites on East 1600 Road in Douglas County north of Highway 40. Land for the garden was made available by KU Endowment, the independent, nonprofit organization serving as the official fundraising and fund-management organization for KU.

The KU Field Station, established in 1947, is managed by the Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research, a KU designated research center. The core research and operations area of the Field Station, just north of Lawrence, consists of 1,650 acres, with five miles of public trails. The Field Station is a resource for KU students, faculty and staff in the sciences, arts, humanities and professional programs, and for visiting researchers and community members.